Mason Bee Keeping

My poor mason bees are flying around their nests with not a flower in sight. Hope they can sustain themselves till the trees start to bloom. Should have some flowers by the beginning of next week.

Think I am going to keep a look out for a free/cheap refrigerator to over-winter them in so I can better time their release.

They sure are fun to watch!

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Bees hatching today, just as the daffs are opening.

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Not a lot of flowers blooming here. Forsythia’s and , daffodils , and a few crocus.

I don’t know anything about mason bees except what I’ve read here. Here is a question: Why are they purchased, allowed to reproduce and than removed from there nest and kept in a refrigerator? Is it unusual for them to survive without human intervention? Are they so rare that they have to be purchased from breeders?

@danzeb
I knew very little about them last year. I bought a mason bee house from Costco on a whim, put it out about this time last year, and boom! I had local bees nesting in it. Perhaps not all parts of the country have these types of bees. I mostly had 1 species, so I bought some cocoons of another for diversity this year.

I think they are removed and stored away for the winter to protect them from parasites, disease, predators, and extreme weather that might increase mortality. I haven’t gotten that far yet to see for myself though. I left mine out last winter and they didn’t die.

I do it to keep them from being attacked by parasitic wasps

woodpeckers eat the larve also. i removed my capped reeds in mid july. store them in the garage to further protect them then i harvest them from the reeds in late fall. you don’t have to do this but if wasps or fungus has gotten in there, by harvesting them you can prevent further infestation and contamination. most places that sell the cocoons have tutorials showing how to do this. its a little work but its worth it.

I guess with no flowers around my bees found the next best thing to do :wink:

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That’s the first-best thing! Flowers come after

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Just about ready to stick the cocoons out with my spur of the moment bee houses. It is really amazing how much you can get done when you wait to the last minute to do it. They are not what i envisioned but I think they will do. I have to figure out a way to keep mud around by the houses, any creative ideas?

We have so many Robins around this year Im not sure any of these bees have a chance.

These just popped up does anyone know what they are called?

These would sustain the bees until the trees get going

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If there’s mud at a reasonable distance, they’ll find it

I have a lovely old earthenware bowl under my house. I fill it with clay and water it periodically. I put a flat stone in it just because I think they should have a way out. I don’t think this is really necessary but when drought hits clay can be a long way off.

I’ve seen them drowned in water only an inch deep

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Yes, I put a stick in any pot or bucket I have. It rains a lot here fall through spring. They fill with water. Without a stick, they drown. With a stick, they can climb out.
John S
PDX OR

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Does anyone have problems with ants? I noticed some pollen scattered around outside one of the nest boxes. Turns out ants started invading a couple of the holes to raid the pollen. I quickly squished them all and put out ant bait.

Mason bees are pretty fun. I wouldn’t have thought I could get so much entertainment from watching them go in and out of their nests and swarming around.

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I put rocks in the bottom of a saucer that normally is under a flower pot. It is good for the bees and also butterflies. They can sit on the rocks and drink and the bees can get water as well. They can climb out of they fall in with the rocks in the saucer.

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You can do the same with clay/mud for their nesting. I use the rubber farm watering bowls(black, 15"x4"). Don’t need any drain holes. Rains and sprinklers keep it wet.

Those are daffodils.

Putting my bee houses out tomorrow. Then waiting for some blooms to release the masons.

In 2017 my mason bees were relatively unsuccessful. In 2018 they were a disaster and I ended up with no cacoons left. This year I olaced the laminates back out empty. Could not justify buying replacment bees with such poor performance in the laminates. To my surprise though I have seen a few native mason bees around the orchard.

If I do mason bees again its going to be with natural reeds. The laminates are really expensive so maybe ill try to sell them on craigslist to get some of my investment back.

I was visiting my bees today and noticed that the population now seems to be largely mason bees, very few horn-faced bees in evidence. I wonder what happened? Used to be, I had all horn-faced but bought some mason bees after a population loss.

Mason bees are noticeably larger.